Outer retinal structure in patients with acute zonal occult outer retinopathy
Marianna Mkrtchyan, Brandon J Lujan, David Merino, Charles E Thirkill, Austin Roorda, Jacque L Duncan, Marianna Mkrtchyan, Brandon J Lujan, David Merino, Charles E Thirkill, Austin Roorda, Jacque L Duncan
Abstract
Purpose: To correlate visual function with high-resolution images of retinal structure using adaptive optics scanning laser ophthalmoscopy (AOSLO) in 4 patients with acute zonal occult outer retinopathy (AZOOR).
Design: Observational case series.
Methods: Four women, aged 18 to 51, with acute focal loss of visual field or visual acuity, photopsia, and minimal funduscopic changes were studied with best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA), Goldmann kinetic and automated perimetry and fundus-guided microperimetry, full-field and multifocal electroretinography (ffERG and mfERG), spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT), and AOSLO imaging. Cone spacing was measured in 4 eyes and compared with 27 age-similar normal eyes. Additional functional testing in 1 patient suggested that cones were absent but rods remained. Serum from all patients was analyzed for anti-retinal antibody activity.
Results: In all patients vision loss was initially progressive, then stable. Symptoms were unilateral in 2 and bilateral but asymmetric in 2 patients. In each patient, loss of retinal function correlated with structural changes in the outer retina. AOSLO showed focal cone loss in most patients, although in 1 patient with central vision loss such change was absent. In another patient, structural and functional analyses suggested that cones had degenerated but rods remained. Anti-retinal antibody activity against a ∼45 kd antigen was detected in 1 of the patients; the other 3 patients showed no evidence of abnormal anti-retinal antibodies.
Conclusions: Focal abnormalities of retinal structure correlated with vision loss in patients with AZOOR. High-resolution imaging can localize and demonstrate the extent of outer retinal abnormality in AZOOR patients.
Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00254605.
Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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Source: PubMed